Research in Asian Australian Studies is marked consistently by critiques of static contexts and hermetic conceptualisations of sociocultural communities.

With the heightened – some might say hyper – mobility of people, capital, and information in the past couple of decades comes the necessity of new interrogations of community, nation, diaspora, and unbelonging.

What does this porousness of boundaries (whether geopolitical, community, or digital) mean for Asian Australian groups and their critical politics? Has the strategic essentialism of ‘Asian Australian’ lost its efficacy? Where is the crucial work that still needs to be done?

The ‘mobilities’ (aka AAI 5) conference focuses on the disparate, dispersed trajectories of Asian Australian subjects and communities, as well as the movement of its political and cultural boundaries.

It brings together academics, community and cultural workers, educators, creative artists, and industry speakers. At its core, the conference critically examines Asian Australian Studies today.